196 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP
twentieth century. Welch turned General Electric into one of the
largest and most admired companies in the world, with a market value
of about $ 500 billion, when he stepped down as its CEO 20 years
later, in 2000. He has been a master in utilizing talent management
to drive change through GE ’ s vast organization. I have also been fas-
cinated by the career of Percy Barnevik, the former CEO of ABB, a
real organizational innovator. To unleash energy and creativity and to
minimize the stifl ing effects of bureaucracy, throughout his truly global
organization, he created 5 000 separate ‘ responsibility centers ’.
All three men have very different styles. In his early years as
chairman, Welch was known as ‘ neutron Jack, ’ a reference to his
dramatic way of transforming a company that suffered from organi-
zational arteriosclerosis — the buildings were left standing but the people
were dead. Although he fi red many people, he revitalized a very sleepy
company, ending up hiring many more people. Richard Branson has
a warm personality and is very accessible, encouraging his employees
to approach him personally with ideas or problems. Percy Barnevik,
by contrast, is more reserved but always placed a high priority on
‘ walking the talk ’ — acting on your principles. He is probably more
‘ left - brain ’ orientated (analytical, logical, and precise) than Branson,
who displays many of the qualities of ‘ right - brain ’ thinking: emotional,
intuitive, and imaginative.
‘ Right - brain ’ thinking is characteristic of highly creative people,
the sort who often fi nd it diffi cult to fi t into an organizational framework
but who are essential to its well - being and continuation — the kind of
people who need to have room made for them. In the last chapter in
this section, I touch upon the question on how to manage creative
people, and how to create workplaces where these potentially rewarding
people can be at their best. We all know that managing creative people
presents a huge challenge. They need to be nurtured and may require
special treatment. The leadership in many organizations is not always
very adept at this. In this chapter I also look at people who are extraor-
dinarily creative. What makes them so special? What characteristics do
they demonstrate? And are there associations with mental illness for
people who are exceptionally creative?
As to the theory that a leader ’ s infl uence on an organization is
illusory — that leaders are actually like passengers in a bus over which
they have no control — I am convinced that leaders are more proactive
than that. Leaders can be change agents. It ’ s not always an easy process —
it requires vision, initiative, courage, decisiveness, resilience, and a lot
of patience — but all of us possess some of these qualities to a greater or
lesser extent.